POWERING MY BOARD...HOW MANY "ma" DO I NEED?

[ammalato]

I've been running an old SKB PS-25 for a while and I think I've out grown it since I have 9 pedals (all 9v MXR and Boss) and the board only has 6 power slots. As a result I'm running a daisy chain off of one of the board's power slots. I'm getting some funky hum issues and whatnot so I'm looking to switch over to a 1Spot power supply set up.

I looked at the 1Spot wall wart and noticed that it is rated at 9v / 1700ma which seems high as my SKB currently is only 500ma and the board is set up to power 6 pedals. If I'm looking to power 9 pedals, what type of amperage (I think that's what we're talkin about) am I looking for? Some of the pedals are older Micro Chorus & Flangers with sensitive IC's in them that get fried easily and are no longer in production so I don't want to learn by error.

THanks,

 

[stinkfoot]

Each pedal has its own current draw (mA draw), which you need to find out. Then, for a daisy chain, add all the numbers together = that's the total current draw of that chain. The adapter will need to have more than that available, but it doesn't matter if it's over by 100 or 1000mA - the pedals will only draw as much as they want anyway.

The 500mA your SKB adapter can provide will be enough for 100 DS-1 pedals, or two Line 6 xx-4 series modellers... so it's very much up to which particular pedals you have.

With the 1700mA a 1spot has to offer, you're probably likely to run into noise problems (from daisy-chaining too many pedals) long before the adapter runs out of steam, but doing the math isn't a bad idea anyway.

/Andreas

 

[Moe45673]

mA has to equal at least the combined mA listing for the pedals you run. However, the number can be as high as you please....... ie there is only a minimum mA requirement, no maximum

 

[ammalato]

Stinkfoot, are you saying that the 1Spot is more likely to offer noise problems than my current configuration? In either case I'm still powering the same amount of pedals (whether it's on the SKB's supply or on a 1SPot). If the 500ma the SKB provides is enough for 9 pedals, than I see no need to change it.

Here's what I'm running....

Ibanez Lu-20 Tuner -> 9v Rangemaster Clone -> Boss OC-2 Octave ->Vox Wah ->MXR Distortion III -> MXR Phase 90 -> Vintage MXR Micro Chorus (Battery Snap adapter) -> Vintage MXR Micro Flanger (Battery Snap Adapter) -> Boss DD-7 Delay.

 

[Moe45673]

Those shouldn't exceed 500 mA. The big one would be the DD-7..... but that alone shouldn't be more than 200 at the most. The rest are probably anywhere from single digits to 30 mA. You'd have to figure those out yourself

 

[ammalato]

How would I go about figureing that out?

 

[stinkfoot]

Stinkfoot, are you saying that the 1Spot is more likely to offer noise problems than my current configuration?

No. What I meant was that with that much power to spare, if you keep adding pedals you will probably run into noise problems long before running out of power.

If your existing setup is quiet, there's no reason to suspect more noise from a similar (daisy-chain style) setup with a more powerful adapter. But in your initial post, you indicated that you actually had noise problems with your current setup. There's no guarantee that switching to a 1spot/daisy chain setup will be any quieter - it depends on why there was noise in the first place.

If you got noise simply because you were getting too near the power limitations of the adapter, switching to a more powerful one should help. But if you got noise because one or more of your pedals don't like being daisy-chained, you'd still have that problem with the new setup.

If the problem is pedal interaction (when one or more pedals gets noisy when powered together with one or more of the others), one solution would be to get a second adapter, which lets you split the pedals into two groups (so you can isolate the ones that don't want to play ball with the others). Also, the 1spot is a switching type adapter, which can provoke clock whine from the chorus and flanger. So don't throw out the old adapter just yet - you may need it for a second group of pedals.

/Andreas

 

[stinkfoot]

The tuner will draw 30-40mA when it's active and tuning, while the DD-7 draws just over 50mA. The others are all 10mA or below.

/Andreas

 

[fiddler49]

You may want to try powering the DD-7 with a separate wall wart. I seem to recall discussions around digital delays not playing well in daisy chain arrangements. I know I had to power my DigiDelay separately when it was on my board.

 

[ammalato]

Stinkfoot. Talk more about the "Clock Wine" you speak of. I posted another thread about this (at least I think this is what you mean) and got no responses.

I have a pre-led MXR Micro Chrous that was dead when I got it. Some momo gutted the thing and re-wired it all wrong, drilled a power jack into in that didn't work, etc. I restored it back to stock (even matched color wiring) and had to replace the SAD512D chip (which die often and are VERY hard to find. $$$$). Now, whenever I kick the pedal on it makes this crazy clicking sound that sounds kinda like an old adding machine/OLD school cash register. I'm powering it via the battery snap. Any thoughts on what this is? Wish I had an audio sample.


My rig is becoming a little too noisey for my tastes now. The Micro Chorus has the issue above, my Wah Hums when engaged and the Micro Flanger hums too.

 

[aziltz]

I've been running an old SKB PS-25 for a while and I think I've out grown it since I have 9 pedals (all 9v MXR and Boss) and the board only has 6 power slots. As a result I'm running a daisy chain off of one of the board's power slots. I'm getting some funky hum issues and whatnot so I'm looking to switch over to a 1Spot power supply set up.

I looked at the 1Spot wall wart and noticed that it is rated at 9v / 1700ma which seems high as my SKB currently is only 500ma and the board is set up to power 6 pedals. If I'm looking to power 9 pedals, what type of amperage (I think that's what we're talkin about) am I looking for? Some of the pedals are older Micro Chorus & Flangers with sensitive IC's in them that get fried easily and are no longer in production so I don't want to learn by error.

THanks,

a Rule of Thumb in electronics is never to draw more than half of what your power supply can output. So make sure your 1-spot or whatever you use can give you double what your pedals need.

Also, Don't worry about frying anything when it comes to Current. 1700mA's from a 1-Spot is what it is capable of supplying. Your pedals will only draw what they need. Plus, 1Spots are cheap, give it a try before you consider more expensive supplies.

Hum on the other hand, can probably come from overextending the powersupply, but it most likely stems from poor power filtering and the easiest way to take care of that is to start isolating individual pedal's power supplies using an isolated power supply such as the Pedal Power 2+ or Supa-Charger.

 

[Waxhead]

I've been running an old SKB PS-25 for a while and I think I've out grown it since I have 9 pedals (all 9v MXR and Boss) and the board only has 6 power slots. As a result I'm running a daisy chain off of one of the board's power slots. I'm getting some funky hum issues and whatnot so I'm looking to switch over to a 1Spot power supply set up.

I looked at the 1Spot wall wart and noticed that it is rated at 9v / 1700ma which seems high as my SKB currently is only 500ma and the board is set up to power 6 pedals. If I'm looking to power 9 pedals, what type of amperage (I think that's what we're talkin about) am I looking for? Some of the pedals are older Micro Chorus & Flangers with sensitive IC's in them that get fried easily and are no longer in production so I don't want to learn by error.

THanks,

answer - as much ma as you can get. Also try to get a brick with both 9v & 18v ports. Gives you more options.

My Gator G-Bus-8 also does 1700 ma plus has 9 x 9v and 3 x 18v ports

 

[fxloop]

Just use a regulated PS like the boss one.....no hum. I power 9-10 pedals with mine (keep in mind you'll prob NEVER turn them ALL on at the same time)
Have done this for at least 10 years, gigging at least 3-4 times a month average and have never burned up an adapter, still have the one i bought in '92 and it works great.....~$15.
Tim

 

[Sir M]

I've been running an old SKB PS-25 for a while and I think I've out grown it since I have 9 pedals (all 9v MXR and Boss) and the board only has 6 power slots. As a result I'm running a daisy chain off of one of the board's power slots. I'm getting some funky hum issues and whatnot so I'm looking to switch over to a 1Spot power supply set up.

I looked at the 1Spot wall wart and noticed that it is rated at 9v / 1700ma which seems high as my SKB currently is only 500ma and the board is set up to power 6 pedals. If I'm looking to power 9 pedals, what type of amperage (I think that's what we're talkin about) am I looking for? Some of the pedals are older Micro Chorus & Flangers with sensitive IC's in them that get fried easily and are no longer in production so I don't want to learn by error.

THanks,

You could Phantom Power mod your pedals and never have to buy batteries or power supply again, and no wires to deal with.